Full Article at: “Weaponizing Viruses – The Article” Yes, we’ve created yet another new verb by “-izing” a noun.

What are your thoughts on the US govt. sponsored research in Holland that has taken a highly pathogenic (but poorly transmitted) H5N1 bird flu virus through “several mutations” to create a new strain of bird flu that is in an airborne form that is both highly contagious and has a roughly 50% mortality rate?

The creator insists that he should be allowed to publish his results to:
1. Give the exact sequences of genetic codes of the final form that allow the virus to become airborne and contagious.
2. Give the exact sequences of genetic codes that lead up to that final form, so scientists can monitor natural bird flu virus populations to see if the natural viral populations are mutating in ways that can or may someday result in a form that would likely cause a world-wide pandemic.
3. To prove wrong the respected scientists who previously said that the H5N1 bird flu virus could not mutate into a highly contagious airborne form.

I find the last item particularly interesting, because the creator says that this was his purpose in starting the research. . . .

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Full Article at: “Weaponizing Viruses – The Article”
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Feel free to copy while giving proper attribution: YucaLandia/Surviving Yucatan.
© Steven M. Fry

Read-on MacDuff . . .